


Scissors

by TheChosenAvatar



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Amused everyone else, F/F, F/M, embarrased asami, oblivious korra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2015-07-25
Packaged: 2018-04-10 12:35:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4392020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheChosenAvatar/pseuds/TheChosenAvatar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Korra doesn’t know what she’s doing with Ikki’s craft supplies. Set between Book 1 and 2, canon compliant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Ikki had lost interest in crafting about 30 minutes ago, instead choosing to challenge Jinora to a race outside, but Bolin, Korra, and Asami still remained in Korra’s room on Air Temple Island with various scraps of paper and tools scattered everywhere. Bolin and Korra sat on the floor, while Asami was perched on Korra’s bed, doodling in her sketchbook.

Bolin finished up a paper airplane that he had fashioned out of red construction paper and handed it to Korra.

“Can you make it fly?” he said hopefully, his child-like excitement causing Korra to laugh.

“Most definitely,” she said before launching the plane into the air, manipulating tiny gusts of wind to make the airplane veer in tight loops around the room. Upon seeing Asami staring at her sketchbook intently, Korra couldn’t help but launch the airplane right into her shoulder.

“Korra!” Asami said, startled as the airborne plane’s point crunched flat against her shoulder. Instead of being annoyed, she was impressed by Korra’s pin-point accuracy.

“You and I need to talk aerodynamics some time,” she said, picking up the plane and crushing it into a ball. She threw it at Bolin and it thumped him lightly on the head before falling to the floor. He barely noticed as he had already moved on to assembling what appeared to be a house made out of popsicle sticks.

Korra frowned. “That sounds boring,” she said flatly.

Asami smiled, deciding to tease Korra. “You mean you don’t want to talk about how the quantities of fundamental forces of flight will affect how the flow field behaves as a continuum? That’s like, the perfect girl’s night!”

Korra groaned very loudly in response to Asami’s science-talk. “Can’t we just go out for dinner instead?”

Asami laughed at Korra’s aversion to her technical terms. Maybe she could have Korra run through some flight simulations for her or something. Asami knew that the Avatar much preferred hands on action rather than discussion. But she’d bring the conversation up another time.

“I’m always happy to have dinner with you,” she said before returning to her sketchbook.

“Good, because I need some time away from Mako. He’s been making me feel smothered lately. I know he’s worried because I’m the Avatar, blah blah blah, but it’s like, he doesn’t have to radio Air Temple Island every hour to see where I am,” Korra huffed, squeezing out the entire contents of a tube of green glitter glue onto a newspaper.

“OOH let me try!” Bolin said, grabbing a red tube of glitter glue and mimicking Korra’s actions.

“Earth, Fire, …” he said, moving to grab a white tube of glitter glue before squeezing the contents out, …”Air…”

“And WATER!!” Korra finished, catching on to Bolin’s game as she squeezed out the blue tube of glitter glue.

“Master of all four tubes of glitter glue?” Asami said with an eyebrow arched, unable to concentrate any longer. She closed her sketchbook and joined Bolin and Korra on the floor, surveying their handiwork. They had created a big blob of multicolored glitter glue on the newspaper.

“That’s right. And you gotta deal with it,” Korra said with a smirk.

Bolin and Asami laughed.

Asami glanced at the large bucket of crayons and pulled it closer to her, digging out a black and red one. She peeled a bit of the paper off of the red crayon as Korra and Bolin watched quietly, trading each other curious looks.

Asami took the peeled paper from the red crayon and tied it around the black crayon like a little scarf. She admired her work and then put the crayon on the floor, making it “walk” towards Korra.

“Hey Korra,” she said in a low voice, trying to sound like Mako. “I like your hair. Wanna date me?”

Korra and Bolin burst into laughter.

“That is _too_ good! That is too good,” Korra repeated, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes.

Asami shrugged, glad that she could make Korra laugh so hard.

“I try,” she said with a smile.

Bolin dove into the bucket of crayons to search for a green one. “I want to make me!”

He promptly found a green and black crayon, and peeled the entire paper of the green crayon in order to make a shirt for the black one.

After crudely taping it on, he held his creation in the air triumphantly. “Ta-da!”

Korra grabbed Crayon Mako and held it near Bolin’s.

“Hey, little bro, let’s fight!” she said in a low voice, and mashed Crayon Mako towards Crayon Bolin, who dodged her attack swiftly.

“Watch out Mako, I’m comin’ for ya!” Bolin made his crayon dive towards Korra, and made contact with the middle of her crayon, causing Crayon Mako to crack in half.

“Bro, you killed me!” Korra said dropping the crayon to the ground. “Now I have to make me and Asami!”

She moved towards the crayon bucket but stopped when she saw Ikki’s plentiful box of scissors.

She gasped. “I have the perfect idea!!”

Korra rummaged around in the scissor box and retrieved a blue and red pair.

“Bolin, look, it’s me and Asami!” she said, opening each pair of scissors and mashing their middles together.

Korra laughed merrily before she realized that Bolin and Asami were silent, mouths open in shock with Asami blushing furiously.

Her laughter died down at their reactions. “Guys?”

When she received no response, she kept on grinding the middle of the scissors together as Mako walked in.

“Look, it’s just like when Asami and I spar! Because she’s so talented with her legs,” Korra said, laughing fondly as she remembered all the times Asami had flipped her over with just her legs. She’d been working on teaching Korra how to master the technique recently.

“Korra??” Mako said, his expression shocked.

Korra put the scissors down, mightily confused at everyone’s reactions. “Yeah…?”

“You and Asami do that when you spar?” he said, his voice loud and the tips of his ears red as she turned to stare at Asami.

Asami put her hands up, waving away his unspoken accusations.

“Not like that, no, definitely not like that,” she somehow choked out, embarrassed at the situation.

Korra was becoming agitated. “Can someone please explain to me what is going on?”

Bolin tried to help, recovering from his shock. “Korra, when two girls are like, interested in each other, like girlfriend material interested, and they…uh…”

When he couldn’t quite complete his sentence, Asami finished it. “That’s a way that two girls have sex, Korra. It’s called scissoring.”

Korra stared down at the positions she had the pairs of scissors in as the implications of her actions dawned on her.

“Ohhhhh….so they rub….” she shook her head. “Never mind.”

“Thank the spirits,” Bolin whispered.

“Ummm…yeah…” Asami said awkwardly.

Korra looked up at Mako. “Well, we don’t have sex during sparring, if that’s what you are thinking. I mean I made it look that way, but we don’t.”

Mako looked satisfied. “It’s okay, you didn’t know.”

He sighed. “Anyway, I was just coming in to check on you before going back to work, so…I’ll see later?”

Asami and Bolin traded secret smiles over the fact that Mako was proving Korra’s overprotective complaint about him from earlier true.

If Korra was annoyed she didn’t show it, but instead stood up to kiss him lightly before he left.

After Mako exited, Korra hovered by the doorway. “I think I’m gonna get going too, check on the airbender kids and stuff. Asami, we can spar later?”

Asami smiled weakly in return, still highly embarrassed by the earlier situation.

“And no scissoring, I promise,” Korra winked mischievously before leaving.

Asami’s eyes went wide as Bolin roared in laughter.

She punched him in the arm. “Okay, that’s enough.”

“That whole thing was so funny!” Bolin said as he began to clean up the mess they had made.

“More like cripplingly embarrassing! Mako totally thought Korra and I were fucking for like, a split second!” Asami said as she put broken Crayon Mako into the bucket.

“Oh well. He knows that Korra didn’t know. They barely taught her the basics about sex in the compound, let alone slang for a type of lesbian sex.”

Asami sighed. “I suppose.”

As they finished cleaning up, Asami’s stomach fluttered a bit when she picked up the Korra and Asami scissors. The fact that Korra had them _scissoring_ (despite Korra not knowing what she had been doing) had nonetheless turned Asami on just a little, but she forced herself to crush the feeling into obliteration, knowing nothing would ever come of crushing on the clearly straight, totally-in-love-with-Mako, Korra.

She threw the scissors into the pile and stood up, brushing her skirt off and straightening her blazer.

As she fastened the top button, she realized that a thread was hanging loose and tried pulling at it to no avail.

Of course, Bolin noticed.

“Hey, need some scissors?” he grinned cheekily.

Asami glowered at him. “Shut. Up.”

 

 


	2. Sparring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra and Asami spar  
> Both over-analyze everything  
> Asami realizes that scissors will haunt her for the rest of her life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to do a part two because of all your wonderful comments! This community is da bomb

Asami had spent the rest of her day off with Bolin. The pair had enjoyed conversation over noodles at Narook’s (mostly trash talking about a new slew of pro-bending teams) before Asami took them for a ride around town in her sleek Satomobile.

The newly branded CEO had been dying for a day of rest and relaxation after putting in grueling 15 hour work days at Future Industries, and she had so far gotten that. That is, of course, if you don’t count the awkward ‘scissor incident’, as Bolin kept referring to it, from earlier in the day.

But aside from some light teasing from Bolin (and Korra!), Asami had decided to overlook the whole thing rather than make a big deal out of it. It was just a mistake on Korra’s part. No use in dwelling on the implications of an ill-informed action, anyway.

Asami glanced at Bolin in the passenger’s seat, a serene look on his face as the wind lightly tousled his hair as they drove.

“How’s everything been with Mako so busy?” Asami said.

Mako had picked up a job as a cop under Chief Beifong after she recognized his instrumental role in the defeat of Amon. Naturally, on-the-job training had left him with little to no free time, let alone time to keep pro-bending on the Fire Ferrets with Bolin. Asami figured that it must have been hard for Bolin to adjust after having his brother by his side for such a long time.

“It’s been okay. I really miss pro-bending with him. The new team is…not _quite_ as skilled as I would have hoped,” Bolin said, a slight wince on his face.

Asami chuckled lightly. “It’s okay to say they aren’t good, Bolin.”

She thought of the lanky rookies that she’d seen practicing with Bolin. They were a stark contrast to the powerhouse benders that were Mako and Korra. And she was sure that the new team members would get better with time, but with the new season starting soon, time was of the essence and Asami just didn’t think they had enough of it to pull together a solid team.

“Asami! Insulting the shiny, brand new Fire Ferrets? That you are still sponsoring, mind you?” Bolin said dramatically.

When he was met with nothing but the quirk of an eyebrow from Asami, he sighed in agreement.

“Okay, they’re not the greatest. But not to worry! We will get there,” he said, nodding curtly as if to assure himself of his own words. He knew that the magic of the original Fire Ferrets could never be re-created, but he’d try his hardest to make his new team mates close seconds.

“And honestly, I do miss training with Mako, but staying on Air Temple Island means there is always _something_ going on. Playing with the kids, sparring with Korra, you know.”

SPARRING WITH KORRA. Asami stopped the car harder than she meant to at a stop sign.

“Sorry,” she said apologetically to Bolin as he jerked forward in his seat. She had completely forgotten that Korra had wanted to get in some practice later today.

“What’s wrong?” Bolin asked Asami.

“I just remembered that Korra wanted to spar with me today. Probably right around now.” she said as she realized that it was well into the afternoon.

“Oh, you’re still doing that?” Bolin said.

Asami looked at him, slightly confused. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“You just seemed jumpy around her after the thing this morning,” he said.

Asami huffed. “The stupid scissor thing? I don’t care about that at all! I wasn’t embarrassed about it, I was just embarrassed for Korra.”

It was a total lie. She was completely and utterly embarrassed by it. Because Asami couldn’t deny that images of her and Korra actually scissoring were flashing through her mind as the Avatar mimicked the action with the tools, and she was totally taken aback by those thoughts because _where the hell did they even come from?_ She had never been nervous about sparring with Korra before but now she was and it was all because of the STUPID SCISSOR THING. Of course, no one else needed to know that.

Bolin shrugged. “Okay. Let’s catch a ferry back to the Island, then!”

Right as the words left his mouth Korra landed on the hood of the car somewhat gracefully.

“Whoa!” Bolin yelled in surprise, mouth open in awe of Korra’s sudden appearance.

“Still enjoying the new air bending, I see?” Asami said, grateful that no traffic had accumulated behind her at the stop sign thus far as she glanced at her mirror.

“You bet. And hey. I couldn’t help but overhear some crazy talk about talking a ferry back to the Island. Who needs a ferry when you can ride the Avatar?” Korra grinned at them, blasting herself up with a puff of air and laughing as she came down. She reached behind her and brandished her glider, flipping it open with a strong swipe. “First class, guys.”

 _RIDE THE AVATAR?!!_ The mental images were already attacking Asami’s mind again. This wasn’t good. This really, _really_ wasn’t good. _Keep it cool, Asami. Think about Mako shirtless or cars, or steamed rice, or SOMETHING, anything but riding the Avatar._

“Um…I don’t feel safe with that,” Bolin said, looking to Asami for support, taking her out of her thoughts.

She was thankful for the diversion.

“Korra, we’re not doing that,” Asami said firmly. Korra’s airbending was far from being mastered, and while she certainly trusted the girl with her life, she wasn’t privy to the idea of flying through the air in anything that wasn’t an aircraft designed by her.

Korra pouted. “Asamiiii. Fine. Let’s take an underwater adventure then. I’ll make a bubble around us. That way we don’t have to wait for the ferry. That thing takes forever,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

Asami and Bolin shared a relieved smile.

“Now that I can do,” Asami said. “Hop in back while I park the car, then we can head out!”

Korra took a seat in the back while Asami pulled to the side and executed a perfect parallel park.

As everyone got out, Korra surveyed Asami’s work, hand on hip.

“I could’ve done better,” she said teasingly.

Asami smirked.

“Oh, I’m sure. Remind me to give you those driving lessons I promised after your last “park job,” she said, making air quotes.

“I would remind you if I actually needed lessons,” Korra said, settling in between Bolin and Asami and looping her arms with each, “but I don’t. So…”

The group chattered and laughed as they made their way to the Island, and when they finally reached their destination, Ikki sprinted up to them.

“Bolin! Bolin! Can we still plant the berry bushes like you said we would this morning? Remember? You said you could help because of your bending!!”

The girl was bouncing up and down, way too excited over some simple gardening. Bolin however, was flattered and also appeared to be equally as excited.

“Um, YES! Absolutely! Where should we plant?” he asked as Ikki took his hand and ran towards an empty patch of land.

“See ya later, guys!” Bolin said over his shoulder as Korra and Asami laughed.

“Now we can get to sparring,” Korra said with a grin. She reached out to grab Asami’s hand to pull her along but stopped mid-way, instead deciding to gesture forward. “Let’s go!”

Asami picked up her speed to follow Korra towards the sparring area, wondering why Korra had decided against taking her hand. She really didn’t mean to overanalyze Korra’s actions, but how could she not? There had been a reason why Korra had wanted to take her hand, and there had been a reason that stopped her from doing so. And not knowing the reason for either action drove Asami absolutely crazy.

Asami and Korra had come a long way since their little love triangle with Mako. In Asami’s opinion, they were pretty comfortable with each other. She wouldn’t use the word close, per say, not yet, but definitely comfortable. Though apparently not comfortable enough to hold hands. Asami worried that she did something wrong to make Korra second guess herself.

 _Maybe Korra really doesn’t like me and is just being civil to me because of Mako’s wishes. Maybe I tease her too much and it comes off as mean. Maybe I’m too distant,_ Asami thought as she followed Korra.

But then again, Asami didn’t really know _how_ to act now that they were spending more time together. She had never actually had a group of friends before like Bolin, Mako and Korra, let alone a friend that was a girl. Things were different with Mako and Bolin. Asami wasn’t afraid to show her affection for the brothers and often kissed them on the cheek or wrapped them into hugs. But she didn’t know how well Korra would respond to such behavior.

Asami knew from research that girls were sometimes more affectionate with each other in friendships than guys, and that hand-holding was normal, and the fact that Korra didn’t feel comfortable enough to do that with her made Asami worry.

Somewhere, along the course of their still young friendship, Asami must have gave off the vibe that hand-holding was off limits. And Asami wanted Korra to know that it definitely wasn’t. She caught up to Korra and grabbed her hand (if somewhat abruptly and awkwardly), and began walking faster, dragging a surprised Korra behind her.

See? She could be a good, affectionate friend.

Korra looked down at their hands. What was Asami doing? She was about to let go out of shock when she realized how smooth and soft and small Asami’s hands were, very unlike Mako’s rough, large ones. She sometimes felt like Mako’s hands were almost too big for her own, but Asami’s fit with hers perfectly. The contrast intrigued her and she held on.

“What are you doing?” she said, laughing as Asami picked up the pace.

“For master of the four elements, you sure are pretty slow. I’m just speeding up the trip to the gym,” Asami shrugged over her shoulder, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

Korra grinned. “Eager to get beat up?”

“That’s assuming you can lay a hand on me,” Asami said as she let go of Korra’s hand to hold the door open for her, following the Avatar into the small gym that housed the sparring mats and equipment.

She unbuttoned her blouse and removed it, throwing it off to the side as she fixed Korra with a challenging stare. “Never assume.”

Korra’s eyes drifted over Asami’s tank top clad torso almost too quickly to decipher before meeting her eyes, her face involuntarily flushing as she watched Asami shake out her hair before tying it into a loose bun. She sometimes found herself in awe of Asami; she didn’t know how it was possible to be so pretty. Where there was jealousy before was now only admiration, now that their relationship troubles where behind them. Of course, Asami looked up and caught her staring.

“Checking out the competition, are you?” Asami smirked.

Korra averted her eyes and scratched the back of her neck, immediately sputtering out rambling sentences. “No, I—uh, was just deep in thought, wasn’t looking, you know, at anything particular, you just happened to be in my line of sight and I—“

Korra was grateful when Asami interrupted her spiel with a laugh.

“Go get changed, Avatar. I’ve got some ass kicking to do,” she said, smiling as she turned away.

As Asami went to the lockers to change into some comfortable pants, Korra shed her pelt, tank top and sweats in favor of a pair of shorts and a black tank top, matching Asami’s. She was totally embarrassed at her reaction to getting caught staring a few moments ago. Because first of all, why was she even staring? As if she had never seen a beautiful girl before? Granted, she had never seen anyone as gorgeous as Asami. And the fact that Asami called her out on it with a little bit of flirting made her heart race in the way that Mako did when he smiled at her, and she didn’t know why. Asami was just her friend, and it was in her nature to be naturally flirtatious and teasing. She shook her head, deciding that she was over-analyzing and threw her clothes into a locker.

When she finished, she grabbed the sparring equipment and met Asami in middle of the mats.

Korra took up a low fighting stance, rolling her shoulders back before aligning herself as Asami cracked her knuckles and took a high stance, elbows close to her body.

At Korra’s nod, she sprung into action, immediately pivoting as Korra made a lunge for her shoulder. She tried to swing back and prepared for a snap kick but Korra had already recovered and threw out her leg first, aiming a kick towards Asami’s solar plexus.

Asami decided in a split second to follow through with her kick, sidestepping Korra imperceptibly as she extended her leg powerfully, meeting Korra’s retreating ankle in mid-air and causing her to lose her balance.

Asami took advantage of this and crouched down into a swift sweep kick to knock Korra’s other leg from under her, but the moment she swung around, close to the ground, Korra launched herself into a backflip and landed a few feet away unscathed.

She smiled at Asami, circling the mats as Asami mirrored her.

“Going on the offensive today, I see,” Korra said, stopping to bouncy lightly on her toes, an invitation for Asami to come and get her.

“Just mixing it up,” Asami said as she moved towards Korra, throwing out a lighting fast 1-2 punch that Korra spun away from, using her momentum to land a roundhouse kick to Asami’s side.

Asami stumbled back but recovered quickly as Korra came at her, twisting in an attempt to mash an elbow into Asami, but Asami mirrored her, turning so that their backs touched as they spun, and was quick to land a blow to Korra’s shoulder as they reached a full circle.

Asami jumped back as Korra threw out a powerful front kick, putting some distance between them.

They stayed that way for a few moments, watching each other, a silent dare between the two to see who would make the first move.

Asami knew how to end this. The corner of her lip twisted into a merciless smile as she barreled towards Korra, gaining speed as much speed as she could while Korra sprinted towards her too.

When they were about a 2 yards apart, Asami launched into the air, ready to take Korra down with an airborne scissor kick, but her eyes widened in horror as she realized Korra was doing the _same thing._

Asami’s legs were open and Korra’s were open and they were flying so fast, _too fast_ , and in an instant they met in one painful unison, causing each to scream out in pain.

Asami held her hands in between her legs, lying on her side as she winced.

“Korra….why…?” was all she could get out at that moment, the throbbing pain making it difficult to articulate why Korra had chosen to copy her attack when she had specifically told her never to do that when she had been teaching her the kick.

Korra was in a similar state near Asami, cradling her nether region as she spoke through gritted teeth. “I thought…that I could turn the tables on you….but it was….a bad idea…clearly.”

Korra squirmed over to where their water bottles where, and bent some out, creating a block of ice. She wrapped it in a small towel and stood up, walking gingerly towards Asami.

She knelt down, taking Asami’s hands before placing the ice in between her legs, then replacing her hands on top of it.

Asami blushed at the gesture despite her pain.

“Should help,” Korra grunted as she laid back next to Asami. She turned her head towards her friend, who was beginning to recover slowly.

“I’m sorry,” Korra said, and she meant it. She never, ever meant to seriously hurt Asami. She reached out and brushed her knuckles against Asami’s cheek lightly.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated softly.

Asami’s breath hitched at the contact and Korra pulled away instantly.

 _Great, now you’ve made her uncomfortable. You’re such a bad friend,_ Korra thought as she turned her eyes towards the ceiling.

“S’okay, Korra,” Asami said, her voice barely above a whisper as her own fingertips ghosted over the place Korra had just touched her, her heart pounding.

She turned towards Korra and was met with the sight of her friend with her eyes closed, taking measured breaths, probably to quell the last receding waves of pain.

“I’m sorry, too,” Asami said to her, taking her hand and giving it a light squeeze.

Korra’s eyes opened. “It’s not your fault!”

She suppressed a shiver at the feel of Asami’s cool fingertips that had moved to rest on her wrist.

Asami chuckled. “Pretty sure we were _both_ in the air in scissor kick stance.”

Korra froze, something dawning on her as she looked at Asami in shock.

“What?” Asami said, worried. “Do you want the ice pack?”

Korra shook her head, a smile beginning to form. Asami thought she almost looked excited or something.

“No, Asami…I think we just scissored! We just had lesbian sex!” she said as if she was proud of it. The smile stayed on her face as Asami blushed crimson.

“What?!! No! Korra, no!” she said frantically.

Korra’s expression turned to one of confusion. “But didn’t you say earlier that scissoring was like…” she made a V shape with her pointer and index finger on each hand slid them between each other, the middles meeting. “…that?”

Asami was stuttering, her palms beginning to sweat. “But not like…you have to be, like…naked and everything, Korra…”

Beside her Korra burst into roaring laughter, and Asami’s embarrassment turned to anger as she realized that Korra was playing dumb to make her feel awkward.

She shoved her with her shoulder. “Korra, that’s not funny!”

Korra almost had herself in tears. “It’s so funny! Your face is so red right now!”

“You’re so mean!” Asami grumbled, clutching her ice pack between her legs.

The doors to the gym opened and Bolin strode in.

“You guys have to come see what Ikki and I---- _whoa_ ,” he stopped mid-sentence, his eyes rounding in shock at the sight before him.

Asami, looking disheveled and red in the face, holding an ice pack between her legs, and Korra, with a blissful smile on her face, holding a hand between her own legs.

“Did you guys---??” he looked between the two of them wildly.

“Yeah, we scissored.” Korra answered brightly, giving him a thumbs up as his jaw dropped.

Asami smacked her palm to her forehead loudly, about to combust from embarrassment.

“This joke is never going to die, is it…” she muttered as Korra dissolved into laughter again.

“Never,” Korra confirmed, and Asami laid down again with an exasperated sigh.

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT, KUDOS, COMMENTS, EVERYTHING!! 
> 
> LONG LIVE THE SCISSORS


End file.
